HD-DVD or BluRay?

[welshbloke]

I have followed the Blu Ray and HD-DVD formats closely and tbh my opinion has not altered.

HD DVD is better for the consumer, The discs should be cheaper, the combo option should make adoption easier, the players should be cheaper, the discs are currently region free and they have less movie house anti piracy mullarky which only causes issues with legitimate purchasers.

Now I used "should" a lot in the HD DVD is better because not all these things happen. I would like to see more combo discs at the same price to help with adoption also discs prices to better match those of DVD equivalents.

Blu Ray is more expensive and panders to the movie house anti piracy mullarky and that inevitable leads to the people actually making the purchases being the ones who are left with discs that do not play. Also again probably pandering to the movie houses the Blu Ray players are region locked, which of course only benefits the movie houses.

Yes Blu Ray has advantages but whether these are of sufficient interest to the consumer is debateable. Had Blu Ray not had the anit piracy and region locking then it would be a closer call just leaving the cost.

I can now buy HD DVD players for £200 in the UK and recently I have seen $169 and even less prices bandied around for the US Black Friday sales of HD DVD players so price is really becoming an issue and we could be at a tipping point.

The general public are less tolerant of accepting discs which they cannot play because of anti piracy measures so I see a seismic shift but the only thing that holds this in the balance are the movies houses, if they all went dual format tomorrow then HD DVD would win and that is the real crux of the matter in my mind and why this war most definately does not benefit the consumer.